John Acquaviva

John Acquaviva is one of the best and most successful DJs in the world. He has DJ'd since the last 70's and has appeared at over 2000 international clubs and events since 1990 with another couple of thousand local sessions amassed during the 80's. He has DJ'd for a cumulative audience of millions and his air miles match and attest to that number. John likes using technology and is a NUO4 enthusiast.

You've been playing for almost 30 years. How have DJ booths and technology changed?
Things used to be a lot more basic: a top DJ booth would have a couple of turntables and maybe a reel to reel with a 4 channel mixer. Maybe EQs on the output... that was state of the art! With the success of clubs, electronic and dance music every DJ, club and scene has its own needs, so now we have software to run lights and sound, virtual and hardware connected and working together... I could never have imagined all the options and possibilities that we have now. Times are good! You can find 3 CD players, 3 turntables, an effects processor, a recording device, EQs on every channel, filters in most cases, crossfaders, dials, faders...

You like technology to help you. What has been its impact on your job?
Technology is supposed to make peoples lives both easier and add new dimensions to your life. For me this is certainly the case. I just need a mix of software and hardware to get my desired results in order to express myself and be creative in my job as well as art.

What's your vision about the future of Djing?
DJing will always be about playing back music for people with a controller that allows for enough expression through a sound board with a quality sound and ability for additional controls. For me that is the turntable, although CDs now are very good. As well, some people use simpler or more complex controllers for their music. Mixers are very important at getting the sound out and making it robust. The DJ's job is to select a good program for a club or crowd, then know how to manipulate it further with the equipment at hand.

And what about DJ technology?
We live in great times. We have many things now that were only dreams 5 years ago.

You're a vinyl junkie. What about the future of electronic music and its distribution?
I love vinyl, but as a collector, you need to keep it in the best quality. That is hard when as a DJ you want to mix and maybe scratch up your records. Now you can do both, collect vinyl like art but have sound files for consumption. As well, digital distribution has truly allowed underground and independent music to reach loyal fans in every city, and every country for a reasonable price, whereas, old style distribution was very expensive and hard to reach small cities and countries.

Finally, how has the NUO4 helped you?
The nuo 4 is the perfect mixer to allow me to use my Final Scratch and manipulate my music the way I want it. With Traktor effects built into the software, the NUO4 lets me unleash these effects without needing another piece of hardware attached to the mixer. I have always loved ECLER for their fat and solid sound, and the NUO4 keeps the tradition alive. I became a loyal fan after doing side by side sound checks and comparisons to all the other mixers and have never preferred another mixer since then. You get the best sounding mixer which now allows me to fully control software to take the sound and possibilities to the maximum level. ECLER is also great because they provide so much value for what you pay.

A loyal and devoted fan
John Acquaviva